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While most teams view the NHL trade deadline as an opportunity to get stronger, the Edmonton Oilers will likely come out of it significantly weaker.

At least in the short term.

With his team so deep in the standings that Chilean miners have given up hope for them, MacTavish will once again be in Seller mode between now and March 5.

Most, if not all of the veterans headed for unrestricted free agency this summer — Ales Hemsky, Ryan Jones, Nick Schultz, Ryan Smyth, Anton Belov, Corey Potter and Ilya Bryzgalov — are available to the highest bidder. But MacTavish isn’t expecting the bids to be anything more than draft picks.

That’s not what Edmonton fans want to hear, necessarily, given how long they’ve already spent waiting for the Oilers to draft their way out of this drought, but that’s the only real option.

Not a lot of playoff contenders are interested in giving up good players on the eve of the playoffs. GMs are funny that way.

“It’s a better scenario for us to get prospects, but teams are more reluctant at this point to part with coveted prospects than they are with draft choices,” MacTavish said in a pre-deadline media scrum at Rexall Place. “It’s not rocket science where we are right now and what our strategy is going to be moving forward. We have a number of guys who are UFAs who are going to elicit some attention around the league from teams preparing for a playoff run.

“We’ll be in all those conversations. It’s a tough market to predict, but we’ll be having those discussions.”

He’ll spend the summer trying to bolster the lineup through free agency and player-for-player trades, but, for now, the Oilers garage sale is open for business.

“Its been pretty quiet through the Olympic break, but starting today it’ll heat up,” he said. “We’re hopeful that we can get a number of things done.”

The Oilers gave up their second round pick in this year’s draft as part of the David Perron trade and gave their third rounder to Los Angeles in the Ben Scrivens deal, and while those were picks well spent, MacTavish would like to fill both those holes.

“If we’re sitting at the draft with our first pick and then we’re not picking again till the fourth round, I think that would be disappointing. So that’s exactly what we’re going to try and do, get those picks back.”

As for the first pick, which could range from first overall to even fifth or sixth, MacTavish says he’s playing it by ear. Make him a great offer and it’s yours, try getting it for table scraps and you’ve got no chance.

“Last year I said I was open-minded and this year I’m open-minded as well, you have to be,” he said. “It’s just determining what the value is, what you can get for that pick. We’ll be listening to every proposal that we can, but last year I didn’t have anything that was even remotely close to what I thought was value for that pick.”

As for the holes left vacant by the departing veterans, they’ll be filled by players from the OKC Barons. That might make for a weaker Oilers team in the short term, but they’re hoping it pays off in the near future.

“We want to free up some roster spots, too, to give some of our young players who are playing well in the American Hockey League an opportunity,” said MacTavish. “This is an unfortunate circumstance, but we have to take advantage of the position we’re in right now and try and accumulate as many assets as we can going through this deadline, open up some spots so our prospects in the AHL can get a look.”